Customer Reviews

Adelina's Whales

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Some beautiful photographs of whales grace this book that introduces readers to Adelina, a girl from Laguna San Ignacio, a small village in Baja California. Readers see a glimpse of her life, hear her grandfather's story about his first encounter with a gray whale, and learn of the whale watching tours that her family conducts for tourists. The whales often come right up to the small boats, affording the people and whale a close-up view of each other. The gray whales winter there and raise their young before heading back to cooler waters in the spring. This book, told as a story, contains ecological, sociological, and zoological information. There is a forward by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Karen Woodworth-Roman

Reason for Reading: I am reading Richard Sobol's entire backlist with my son and discussing the life of a photographer/photojournalist as a career option while doing so.

Sobol offers us another book filled with gorgeous photography of gray whales, up close and personal, as here on La Laguna the whales allow people to come right up to them and pet them. We follow ten-year-old Adelina who lives in a grouping of box-like structures patched together with wood and metal on the beach. She adores her life here especially when in January the whales arrive from up north. We learn about Adelina's life and that of the whales through Adelina's family, her father and grandfather. A lovely story with tremendous photography to accompany it.

I have actually been to the San Ignacio Lagoon where the whales come and where Adelina lives. This book is a very nice story and a nice introduction to gray whales and their lives, also the life of a young girl in rural Mexico. The photos are beautiful and it's well written from the viewpoint of the little girl. I bought this book in the town of San Ignacio after going whale-watching myself near where Adelina lives. Any kid interested in whales or biology or the ocean or Mexico would enjoy it I think.